What not to do to draw near to God

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

Sometimes in life it's really important to know what not to do in order to see, succeed at what we're trying to do. So we're in the midst of our series Drawing Near to God and today what I want to offer up is three things that you should avoid, three things you should not do in order to draw near to God.

And we're going to take it from a passage in which as Jesus enters Jerusalem, he goes into the temple and he condemns a bunch of different things that are going on. And it gives us a lesson. If we want to draw near to God, we don't want to do these same things.

And those three things that he sketches out are allowing your faith to become an empty system. We don't want to do that. Second, we don't want to resist the relational transformation that God's love should create in our life. And lastly, we don't want to allow our power to become corrupted, our authority to be corrupted. Let me sketch out each of these and why.

So Jesus enters the temple and he's angry. He enters what's considered the court of the Gentiles, which is about three football fields wide and five football fields long. He starts flipping over tables. Why is he flipping over tables if all these people are showing up to worship? Well, he's flipping them over for a couple reasons. One reason is, there's a whole lot of money to be made in this whole system. And it's a giant system.

The historian Josephus tells us that in A. D. 66, which is about 30 years after this story takes place, that there was 266, 000 lamb sacrificed during Passover. That's a crazy amount of butchering and grilling that went on that week. So it's big business. But the reason that Jesus is upset is that worship itself has just become an empty system.

People are making the trek to, to Jerusalem, going into the temple, paying the money, getting the animal, doing the sacrifice, checking the box, going on and doing the thing. And it's a word of caution to each of us is that we don't want our faith to become an empty system. And it can be true for us. We can get to the place where when we, read scripture, or in prayer, or sing. We're just going through the motions. Even when we show up to church, we're just sort of checking the box.

And with faith, that always damages it, because faith is a relationship. And relationship takes engagement, and risk, and new adventure. And so if you want to draw near to God, don't allow your faith to become an empty system, but rather let it be alive.

Let it be a relationship in which you're journeying with God through your life, and you're discovering God in the midst of your home, your neighborhood, your workplace. Because there, that's where you will experience grace and joy and goodness. And so ask your question, where maybe in your life is your faith becoming an empty system?

Maybe prayer for you is something that you're no longer really engaged on. You're just checking the box on it. Whatever it might be, be honest. Hey, this is where it's become empty, and what is it that you want to change about it?

So the second thing that we learn, we want to avoid, is resisting relational transformation. So, Jesus quotes from Isaiah and Jeremiah. And in both sections it says that God is going to draw all people from all nations to himself. And that the sacrifice that they offer will be welcomed by him. Now, in this case, what we see in the temple, what's going on is that it's not about how they do it, it's why, and that's what Jesus is condemning.

He's saying that sacrifice from all nations will be welcomed, meaning it's, it doesn't have to be exactly this way, it's a heart thing. And so Jesus is condemning the leaders of the temple, saying what you've done is you've created a system that has allowed for exclusion versus inclusion. And that's a lesson for all of us.

We want to be the kind of people that, because of the way that God loves us, we love others. And that's going to be us welcoming people and inviting them in, welcoming and inviting them into our church, welcoming and inviting them into our home, but it's learning how to be one who doesn't exclude, but includes. And so that's what we want to do.

So my question for you is like, who might you offer up an invite to invite to church or welcome in the office like, Hey, why don't we go grab lunch? Whoever it is that you think maybe feels on the outside, what could you do to invite them in to the inside?

Lastly, this lesson from Jesus is a lesson to not allow our authority to be corrupted. It says that the leaders wanted to kill Jesus after He had disrupted the temple because everyone was hanging on his every word, following his teaching. So they felt like their authority was threatened, that their prestige was threatened, that their finances were being threatened. What we see in Christ is that authority is meant to serve.

Jesus says that he came to serve, not be served, and give his life as a ransom for many. And for each of us, the authority we have is meant to foster good, to foster and build the kingdom of God, versus foster and build our own kingdom. Authority shows up in all kinds of ways. Sometimes it's formal authority. Sometimes it's relational authority. Sometimes it's influence authority. But whatever authority you have, take account of it and say, am I using the authority that I've been given to expand God's kingdom? Or am I using the authority I've been given to build my own kingdom? And how might you switch that?

Where's a way that maybe at work you could take some risk and engage and use the authority you have for the greater good? Think about that in your family. How might you use the authority you have to cultivate something that draws near the kingdom of God? Versus just making your own life easier.

Whatever it is, if you want to draw near to God, understand the authority that you have and don't allow it to be corrupted so that it doesn't. You use it to serve yourself. Hey, this week, as you go out, I hope that you're able to draw near to God and that you're able to do that because you're avoiding these three things.

You're avoiding your faith becoming an empty system. You're avoiding the resistance that we have of relational transformation, and you're avoiding allowing your authority to be corrupted. Hope this series has been helpful and looking forward to next week. Take care. Talk to you soon.